Party registration overview

On this page:

Current Register of Political Parties

The AEC maintains a Register of Political Parties. This register lists those parties which are eligible to have the party affiliation of their endorsed candidates printed on ballot papers.

Eligibility

To be eligible for registration a party must be:

Established on the basis of a written Constitution that sets out the aims of the party and;
either:

a parliamentary party, which is a political party with at least one member in the Parliament of the Commonwealth;or

a political party that has at least 500 members who are on the electoral roll and are not relied on by any other party.

Applications

Applications for registration are made to the AEC's National Office. For parliamentary parties they may be made by the party secretary or all the parliamentary members. For other political parties the application must be signed by ten members of the party of whom one is the secretary of the party.

An application cannot be processed by the AEC in the period between the issue and the return of the writ for a Commonwealth election or by-election.